Video and installation artist Laura Fritz is speaking at Reed College this weekend on Case Works 13. For the exhibition, Fritz inverted the Case Works vitrines in the Hauser Library, mirroring the interior to create a mysterious world of endless vanishing points and beautiful, yet uneasy organic forms. Fritz has exhibited throughout the country, and is one of the recipients of the NAAU Couture awards.

Ann Gale will also be lecturing this weekend, in conjunction with her APEX exhibition at PAM. This Seattle-based figurative painter explores the psychology of her sitters through the fragmentation of her portraiture.

The first thing that you notice when you get off of the elevator at Olafur Eliasson's Take Your Time at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is that you are entering a room that is saturated with a bright yellow light. The piece is called Room for One Colour and the room is saturated, or soaked if that is possible, with this bright yellow light. The light is so bright that the walls in the elevator lobby seem to dematerialize and the room seems much larger than it really is. It is a good introduction to the show because from now on nothing will be what it seems. Eliasson is the master of inverting your expectations. Anything that you think you know about a space or a material goes out the window. His strength as an artist is his ability to look at materials or phenomenonal effects with a fresh eye. He is able to isolate the raw potential of a material so that it can be used to transform the experience of the viewer.

The Newspace Center for Photography is soliciting submissions for an exhibition exploring "altered landscapes." From architecture to horticulture to earthworks, human beings are constantly altering the world around them, and Newspace wants to know what that looks like to you.

Any type of photographic process is admissible. You may submit as many images as you like, with a submission fee of $5 per image. The deadline is December 28, and the exhibition will open on February 8. Check out the full prospectus for more information.

Traeger is a young artist whose name keeps coming up in town and the work reminds me of a cross between Marsden Hartley and Tal R... which is a promising semiotic stew that looks quasi military. Also of note The Cascade Gallery is now being programmed by one of Portland's premier artists Jacqueline Ehlis (currently showing in Las Vegas Diasora), suddenly exhibitions in North Portland are becoming more serious.

This November Portland was full of interesting shows that probably deserved more attention
and if you want to walk off some of those Thanksgiving calories you can check
out these shows that aren't by Kentridge,
Campbell,
Lulic/Kreider,
Boberg and
Von
Rydingsvard . Yes, those are still my top picks but here are some other
vexing shows that collectively show just how varied and unpredictable Portland
can be. Recently Jen Graves and Regina Hackett started a conversation in Seattle
about the center of their scene... for contrast things are too varigated
here in Portland to even consider a center these days. Sure we had a center or two back in 2002-2004 with
Haze
and the original
Savage gallery but now each of the 100 or so factions is pretty much capable
of getting 100-500 of their cohorts to show up to a big event There just isn't a single room big enough
to fit everyone and a lot of these groups have international connections that
make trying to "be THE place" in Portland a bit of a waste of time.
Instead we have lots of alt spaces and old haunts:

Bryson Gill's Atrium Surrealism in Grey

Jace Gace is a great
new altspace addition to the Portland art scene started by a couple of recent CCA grads...(more)

Every winter, the Talisman Gallery members team up with a variety of regional artists for their annual juried exhibition, which launches with a benefit silent auction. This year, 40% of the proceeds go to AFTA, an organization supporting arts education in Portland schools.

In the November issue of Art in America, PORT's own Jeff Jahn participated in a round table discussion lead by Peter Plagens exploring the world of art blogging. This week, PORT is organizing Avant Blog, a panel discussion to follow up on the article, and expand upon the issues raised in Plagens' conversation. Panelists include: Erin Langner, Communications Assistant at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle and a regular contributor to Hankblog, Carolyn Zick, of "Dangerous Chunky". Amy Bernstein of PORT and Jeff Jahn, co-founder of PORT. Bruce Guenther, Chief Curator Portland Art Museum, will serve as moderator and provide further historical perspective on art publishing.

It's an important revolution in cultural writing and we'd like to encourage all bloggers to come and participate in the extensive Q&A that will follow the panel. Help us break ground in cultural communications!

This Friday, the NW Film Center is showing the first in a series of films by Shohei Imamura (1926 - 2006). This Japanese filmmaker "excelled at exposing the realities of the human condition and the basic instincts, rational and otherwise that drive human behavior."
The first film, Vengeance is Mine, airs on Friday, November 23, at 7pm. Click here for more info on the full series.

Also showing this weekend at the NW Film Center: Helvetica, directed by Gary Hustwit, which explores the effect of typology and design on communication and our daily lives.

Here's an interesting opportunity for all you video artists out there:

"In February 2009, the United States will add Dead Air to the acres of accumulated Dead Media, pulling the plug on analog television broadcasts. Subsequent waves of e-waste are predicted as consumers junk their abruptly obsolete receivers in favor of HD-readied consoles. What else will go out with this trash? What residue, ghost-images or other artifacts will persist in the nooks and crannies of this technocultural turn-over?"

The Video Gentlemen are seeking submissions for a video and performance series that will explore/reclaim "electromagnetic modes of cultural production." Deadline is January 15. For more information, visit their website.

Tyler
Green has been playing a parlor game centered around reimagining MoMA's galleries.
My take is that Americans pretty much needed Alfred Barr to simplify the polyglot
that was avant-garde art for Yankee consumption. Barr's brilliant solution
was Picasso and since he had helped MoMA to acquire Les Demoiselles d' Avignon
the museum was in a good position to make that case. Following curators like
Rubin and Varnadoe picked a different hero artist to key the installation to; Jackson Pollock. The thing
is I believe Americans are now ready for a more complex worldview and MoMA needs to
accept that challenge to avoid becoming not only just a museum of 20th century
art but a museum of 20th century ideology. Personally I agree that Pollock is
a lynch pin argument but I also agree with Tyler that by foregrounding another
giant like Clyfford Still and lesser lights like John McLaughlin it could really
shake things up. Hell, I'd throw in an Andrew Wyeth and lots of H.C.
Westerman's just to flay the monogenic discussion away from just one artist. Westerman
isn't talked about enough, he's actually way more influential than is typically
recognized. I'm all for an allout assault on monogenic thought in America... (more)

The print media in Portland is finally starting to catch up with PORT on the very
exciting 511 building project for PNCA. Here's our initial take, and a tiny
bit from the
O this past Saturday (they've lost a lot by not having full-time architecture
columnist like Randy Gragg). To reiterate, the 511 project effectively creates a high profile arts
boulevard on Portland's North Park blocks (consolidating gains with the Desoto
Building and the Everett
Station Lofts) and if the Post Office moves out by the airport as expected
the additional 13 acres could be developed into an urban cultural boulevard...
a little bit like the Benjamin
Franklin Parkway but with the park blocks instead of the old imperial style.
Also, Brad Cloepfil did the campus' master plan and would almost certainly be
the top choice as architect for this building. Net result, a world-class art
institution effort in the Pearl District. I was at the PDC meeting (there was really no contest between the market and PNCA, the Federal Government controls the building
not PDC and thus only PNCA qualifies to apply). Hopefully, the GSA will see the wisdom
in giving PNCA the building and Portland a boost... let's just say PNCA is pulling out all the stops,
they really want this and it's the biggest news for Portland's cultural
community since I've lived here (8.5 years).

UPDATE* DK Row has chimed in as well now with a pleasantly matter of fact piece... the recent vacation must have quelled his typical need for snark, or maybe it's because this is such an important issue. Still this article doesnt really convey how this is a potentially paradigm changing opportunity.

Nouvel's proposed tower next to MoMA

Jean
Nouvel is designing a new tower next to MoMA. Actually, it will give a much
needed expansion to MoMA's exhibition space by devoting 3 floors to the museum.
This question from the Times' Ouroussoff is key, "Yet the building raises
a question: How did a profit-driven developer become more adventurous architecturally
than MoMA, which has tended to make cautious choices in recent years?"
I consider it an opportunity for MoMA to "grow a pair", so to speak
so please don't let Taniguchi design the galleries?$@! We live in a pluralistic age and
MoMA needs an architecturally pluralistic campus. Don't even get me started abouthow lame this other new york project is.

If you didn't have the chance to attend video artist Gary Hill's lecture the other night at Reed, you may have missed one of the rarer opportunities to revisit the contemporary phenomena of existence with one of its most ardent investigators. While modern day philosophers. . .(more)

This month, Charles Hartman Fine Art is exhibiting the Mont St. Michel series by Michael Kenna. The haunting black and white photographs explore the quieter moments on the beautiful French island. Kenna will be signing copies of his accompanying book during the reception.

This Friday, NYU art historian Eve Meltzer is lecturing on The Love of Language and the Politics of Dis-Affection: Mary Kelly's Post-Partum Document. Kelly's extended project, developed from 1973-1977, explored her relationship to her son over the first four years of his life.

This just in: Reed is full of great lectures this weekend! On Saturday, Peter Kreider will be discussing The China Syndrome. Kreider is currently exhibiting in the Cooley Gallery with Marko Lulic as part of a joint Cooley & PICA project.

For those of you who arent as sick of my own voice as I am... I'll be on KBOO
radio's Art Focus program tomorrow at 10:30 Am (Pacific Time). On the dial you
can find them at 90.7 FM and for the rest you can stream
it online here. Julie and I will probably discuss this month's Art
in America article on art blogs, Portland's art scene and my other upcoming
projects.

Also note on November 29th as a followup to Peter Plagens Art in America article
this month PNCA will be hosting Avant
Blog a panel discussion about the online publishing revolution as it relates
to serious art blogging. It's a heavy duty lineup and I encourage all bloggers
who can make it to attend and chime in on the Q and A. 7-9PM in the Swigert
Commons of PNCA: free

Moderator: Bruce
Guenther, chief Curator of PAM, because he can handle both the snark and
the issues of "seriousness" in an emerging art media, besides the historical precedents for blogging have historical roots that pre-date the internet.

My general reaction to this list is it's... solid, somewhat conservative (except for Clifford whom I was rooting for as an underdog) and very Northwest art-ish (aka lots of wood, craft, animals and tree references). For context, more agressively contemporary and less regionally placeable artists like Alex Schweder, Sean Healy, Jack Daws and Chandra Bocci (list goes on forever) were not of the 28 finalists from which these 5 were chosen so this list isn't really a surprise and curator Jennifer Gately has a very tricky balancing act to do. Her statement that she decided on, "works that resonate on distinctively regional yet universal levels," explains things rather well... to me that means a show which big time donor/collectors can be both challenged by and yet find familiar. A completely respectable list, but not bleeding edge... (more)

This week, 23 Sandy Gallery is opening a group exhibition to celebrate the winter solstice. Night Moves features 14 local photographers exploring the nocturnal world, from city streets to their own bedrooms.

If anything is worth the drive out to Corvallis, this is it. Internationally renowned artist Do-Ho Suh is speaking this week at OSU. Born in Seoul, Korea, Do-Ho Suh relocated to the U.S. after receiving his MFA in painting, and has since received wide recognition for his sculptures that "defy conventional notions of scale and site-specificity." Do-Ho Suh represented Korea in the 2001 Venice Biennale, and has exhibited his work all over the world.

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction - Sir
Isaac Newton's third law of motion

a portion of Beth Campbell's The Following Room (2007) at PNCA

Art can get lost in the paradoxes it courts and sometimes that is a good thing.
Yes, some contemporary art is designed to ingratiate itself by reaffirming the
tastes of those who see it, whereas other work is designed to confront and challenge
those expectations. Beth Campbell's show at PNCA's Feldman gallery is mostly of the challenging journey
variety. It has a kind of magic despite the fact it goes pretty much nowhere through its use of a series of faux mirrors. The effect is a bit like the Bermuda
Triangle in an Ikea store, or a kind of physical paradox where pop culture meets nameless individual.
The important part is how viewer gets a little lost and discombobulated by the
experience forcing them to question the way optics and cognition converge.

Getting lost has an important and pervasive history that can't be ignored.
Great literary characters like Melville's Ishmael or cheesy self help books
are both built on the idea that one has to lose themselves in order to find
oneself. In Chinese philosophy
Mencius focused on the internalization of one's external world to stay true
to it. Similarly the western philosopher Wittgenstein
focused on the human tendency to solipsisticly see one's self as the center
of the universe... (more)

Gary Hill, recipient of the Leone d'Oro Prize for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale in 1995 and the MacArthur "genius" Award in 1998, will be lecturing next week at Reed College. Hill's work in electronic media, video, and performance since the 1970s has earned him the international reputation of being one of the most important artists of his generation. The ongoing shows by Marco Lulic and Peter Kreider at the Cooley Gallery and Caseworks 13 by Laura Fritz in the Library will open before the lecture as well.

Static/FluxPSU's MK Gallery is seeking submissions for a juried exhibition on the themes of static and/or flux. Two and three dimensional works in all media will be considered. The show will run from February 22 - March 21, 2008. Submissions are due on November 26. For more information, check the Craigslist posting, or contact the gallery director at jenene@pdx.edu.

Intown Works Night
The Intown Church is seeking submissions for its third annual Works night on December 6. All visual media will be considered. Submissions are due November 15. In addition to visual arts, the evening will feature music and performance on the theme of time. It is a non-religious event. For more information, contact matthew@intownchurch.com.

So far, the two most influential art shows of the 21st century have been the2002 Whitney Biennial curated by Larry Rinder and Beau Monde: towards a redeemed cosmopolitianism curated by Dave Hickey in 2001. The art-insider-unpopular WB was a fetished kind of amatuerism that was quickly co-opted by the arts system as a style (yet ironically got Rinder exiled), whereas conversely Beau Monde was simply too perfect as an ideal, hyper intelligent yet entertaining art show that sported grafitti art and foregrounded experience (most of the art was also big ticket). Together they signified the death knell of postmodernism (which was all about disassociation and alienation) and the reassertion of both craft and street culture as more important than the academy.

This week the Portland Advertising Federation (PAF) is hosting the 50th annual Rosey Awards, which celebrate the "world class" work in communication arts coming out of the Northwest. In conjunction with the awards ceremony, the gallery at the Portland Art Institute will be showing selected entries through November 6, and then featuring the award winning work exclusively from November 8-28.

The ceremony will be held Wednesday, November 7 at 5:30pm at the Gerding Theater in the Portland Armory.

Beyond the Frame: Robert Irwin's Primaries and Secondaries at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego

Robert Irwin examining Light and Space a few moments after it was turned on
Photograph by Jeff Jahn
Copyright Robert Irwin/Artists Rights Society, New York

Robert Irwin is walking to the left and then to the right, stepping forward and then back, until finally stopping at a spot where the work fills his entire field of vision. He is trying to understand what this new piece is about and he has always said that looking is as much about the body as the eyes. For the first time, his assistants have just turned on Light and Space, a work designed specifically for his retrospective, Primaries and Secondaries at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego. Light and Space, like the eponymous art movement is about a particular environment or set of conditions to experience. In this case it is a large empty room defined on a one long by a field of fluorescent light fixtures. The lights are installed in a non-repeating modified grid pattern that completely fills a giant wall. There is no focus and is non hierarchical, it is just the experience itself. The experience resonates between the field of light that is created by the fixtures and the way that the light redefines the space of the room. The transformation and reorientation of the space makes the new work a classic Irwin piece.

Robert Irwin examining Light and Space
Photograph by Jeff Jahn
Copyright Robert Irwin/Artists Rights Society, New York

At that moment, like the rest of us, Irwin has never seen this particular work before, and we are lucky enough to watch him as experiences it for the first time. It is an event that crystallizes much of Irwin's approach and reveals as much about the man as the art. In the excellent retrospective of Irwin's art currently on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego we are treated to almost fifty years of his work, most of which is supplied by the Museum's own collection. The installation of the work is clean and spare and you can feel Irwin's eye not only in the work but also in the way the work becomes inseparable for the space in which it is installed.

Conceptual artist Tom Marioni is speaking this weekend at Reed College. Marioni's work is guided by his interest in Zen Buddhism, and its emphasis on locating the extraordinary within the ordinary and focusing on the process over the product. He's received acclaim for his 1970 project The Act of Drinking Beer with Friends is the Highest Form of Art, which involved gathering with friends for drinks and conversation, and was documented only by photograph.

And while you're at Reed College, don't forget to swing by the library and check out Laura Fritz's Caseworks 13, on view from November 2 on. Described as "perceptual architecture," the show promises to really shake things up in the Hauser Fundome. Official opening TBA and talk on December 2nd but it's up now.

Anavtika Bawa

Also happening in the world of education this weekend: Avantika Bawa's Sit, Stack is opening at PSU's Autzen Gallery. Combining objects built in her studio with site-specific installation, Bawa "puts the act of drawing into the service of sculptural design" by integrating hand drawing with architectural supports. Her use of functional materials and delicate hand work make her work subtle and candid.

Sincerely, John Head is having their first solo exhibition this month at Small A. The central focus of BOX SET: Car Show is SJH's 1977 Ford Ranchero, but it is only one element of their ongoing BOX SET project. Inspired by the 1977 album Foghat Live, "the year 1977, parking lot culture and fandom," BOX SET explores the physical traces of the "ephemera of fanaticism" and the way the legacy is constructed and packaged. Previous BOX SET projects include the Studio Sessions project for PICA's 2007 TBA festival.

Director Gavin Shettler in 2005 at the Portland Art Center's then new home in Chinatown

The Portland Art Center has been attempting to fill an important role in the Portland arts community over the past five years, as a non-profit supporting the development of young artists while bridging the worlds of galleries, museums, and educational institutions. Now they're looking back to the community for support to cover a $40,000 budget shortfall.

Although PAC has achieved some success with grants (a $50,000 grant from the Meyer Memorial Trust and $25,000 from the Lehmann Foundation) they have been unable to meet their sustaining private fund raising goals in Portland's difficult philanthropic environment.

They're currently inhabiting an ambitious 10,000 square foot space, but the rent, although below market value, has become a heavy financial burden at $5,000 per month. As the Goldsmith building's lead tenant, it creates market pressures for developer David Gold and his bank, requiring PAC to scale up financially. PAC currently needs to raise $27,000 for back rent and $13,000 to cover salaries for its two staff members by December 1st. That isn't a lot of money considering the Portland Art Museum raised 40 million dollars back in 2005, but those people have been completely absent as major patrons ($2,000+) for PAC. Shettler describes the situation as, "at a critical point."

Here's a chance for budding designers, architects and well... armchair architects. We have discussed
this previously on PORT but most of the design conscious people in Portland
who saw the rather preliminary image for the new pedestrian, cycle and light
rail bridge just south of the hideous looking Marquam Bridge by ZGF were pretty unimpressed.
To be fair to ZGF, its just a preliminary, on the other hand it's top heavy
and very static "clothespin" form almost seemed like a Claes Oldenberg.

In the spirit of better design, PORT is going to have a lil contest so y'all can give it your best
shot. You can even choose to use this high-res image (courtesy of Brad Carlyle)
if you want.

Rules are simple:

Email jpeg's to me at jeff At portlandart Dot net by December 1st and we will
post images of everything that stands out. Highly conceptual, impossible to
build ideas, such as a bridge made of banana peels or Vera Katz statues are
fine, though if...(more)